MEXICO CITY — The government of Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro and his country’s opposition broke a political stalemate Saturday with a
broad social accord, and the US government responded by allowing a major US oil
company to resume operations in Venezuela.
اضافة اعلان
The accord
heralded a potential easing of a grinding economic and political crisis in
Venezuela.
It paves the way
for the UN to oversee a trust fund of frozen Venezuelan assets to be used for a
variety of social projects in the South American country, including programs
related to education, health, food security, flood response, and electricity.
“We have
identified a set of resources belonging to the Venezuelan state, frozen in the
global financial system, to which it is possible to access,” said Dag Nylander,
an envoy from Norway, which facilitated the negotiations. The amount to be
released was not specified.
The agreement,
signed in Mexico, ended 15 months of stalemate between the two sides,
potentially easing a massive flow of refugees from Venezuela throughout the
region and even impacting world oil markets.
Maduro praised
the deal on Twitter, saying it “opens the way for a new chapter for Venezuela,
to keep advancing towards the peace and well-being that all Venezuelans yearn
for.”
And UN deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq said in a statement that Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres was committed to supporting the parties, calling the breakthrough “an
important milestone that has the potential to deliver broader benefits for the
people of Venezuela.”
The US Treasury
Department said the accord marks “important steps in the right direction to
restore democracy” in Venezuela, and responded by issuing a license to Chevron
Corp. to resume limited oil extraction operations in Venezuela.
World’s largest oil reserves
The license will remain in effect for six months while the
Biden administration assesses whether the Venezuelan government meets commitments
made in the accord, the Treasury Department said.
Chevron said it
would “continue supporting social investment programs aimed at providing
humanitarian relief” in the country and that the “decision brings added
transparency to the Venezuelan oil sector”.
The relaxation
of curbs on Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest
oil reserves, would allow the nation to move toward re-entering global oil
markets.
International
efforts to resolve the Venezuelan crisis have gained strength since Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine and the pressure it has placed on global energy supplies.
A joint
statement by
Canada, the US, the UK, and the EU pledged “willingness to review
sanctions” on Venezuela but demanded that it release political prisoners,
respect press freedom, and guarantee independence of the judiciary and
electoral bodies.
Despite its huge
oil reserves, Venezuela suffers grinding poverty and a political crisis that
has led a UN-estimated 7 million Venezuelans to flee the country in recent
years. Food, medicine, and such basics as soap and toilet paper are often in
short supply.
Saturday’s
accord made no headway on a critical issue: How to move ahead toward
presidential elections scheduled for 2024.
Venezuela’s
political crisis has worsened since Maduro declared himself victor of contested
2018 elections, which were widely seen as fraudulent, and generated widespread
street protests.
Maduro’s
opposition is seeking free and fair presidential elections while Caracas wants
the international community to recognize Maduro as the rightful president and
to lift sanctions, particularly a US oil embargo and freeze on the nation’s
overseas assets.
After the
contested 2018 elections, almost 60 countries, including the US, recognized
opposition leader Juan Guaido as acting president.
The Unitary
Platform opposition group has not reached consensus over the conditions it
requires to take part in the vote, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.
Guaido’s influence has
waned in recent years, and he has lost key allies both at home and in the
region.
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